Assorted Drabbles, Poems, and Other Vignettes
by Doseux
Summary: A series of vignettes of various themes. Comments and critiques are welcome.
1. Première

Little flowers sprout among the feet of trees. They sway and stoop, singing with the whistling of reeds and the creaking of the trees' boughs. A chorus of birds intones the melancholy refrain. A lone pegasus adds her voice to the symphony. She floats above the wood, hooves brushing against the rustling leaves.

The light withdraws and the clouds darken. A rumble of thunder keeps the beat. Lightning casts her face in macabre contrast; blue and black and doldrums' lackluster color dance across downturned features. The pony whimpers in the path of the coming storm. Raindrops wash away the tears.


	2. Deuxième

Sparks and fanfare. Flags, banners, rising smoke, lively music and dancing, and ponies from every corner of Equestria glowing with smiles and bright eyes. And Trixie plays the star, lavishing in the stallions' gawking, the envious glares of mares. Lights fade off. The curtains close. Deep silence falls all around.

The show is over. Trixie stares at her dresser's mirror. The luminous surface shows the tiredness around her eyes. A glance cast back at the table sends a chill over her before she crawls into bed. A picture, the face of a colt, singed and torn stares from the wardrobe.


	3. Troisième

An hour of darkness marches across the blue of dusk's moon. A grand cathedral looms over the poor town, ensuring a vigilant observer in the gloom. I am the sentry, the wavering shadows of the early morning's vapors.

Stars alight the fields. Insatiable hunger broods ill intent, and evil mars the heart of chivalry. I am those stained by treachery. I am revenge.

Vengeance flowers athwart the land. Magic falters; honor lives. I am the voiceless. I am the downtrodden.

Lustrous pains, fierce hatred kindles mortals to grievous actions, grievous ends. I am righteousness. I am the Mare Do Well.


	4. Quatrième

"It's just a date."

"Oh, but it never is just a date, Darling."

Rainbow Dash glowered at her friend as the latter trotted back and forth across the boutique, selecting fabric and setting sewing machines into motion.

"You're not really going to make me wear that, are you?" Dash gestured toward the scraps of blue fabric, yellow lace, and red frills being formed into a dress on the mannequin. Rarity ignored her for a moment and continued to work.

"Have a little class; you're going to have fun. It is not everyday you get to see your parents."

"Adoptive parents."


	5. Into the Sky

"Meh, er—"

"Oh, hey, she's waking up!" a voice called out.

Scootaloo grimaced at the noise.

"Calm down, Sweetie. Shoutin' won't help."

"Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo opened her eyes to see her friends standing a leg's length away from her. She was in a medical ward somewhere, lying in a cot. Her legs felt too heavy to move under the blue linens lain over her.

Apple Bloom gave her a wan, sympathetic glance, the trace of a smile tugging at her damp face. Sweetie Belle took a few paces back. She tugged at a scarf around her neck and looked away from Scootaloo.

"They said you were going to die," Sweetie muttered. Scootaloo hazarded a chuckle, but it came out weak and without humor.

"Well, I'm fine now, right?"

"Ah, looks like you're awake," said an unfamiliar voice. The three mares looked up to see a silver-blue unicorn in scrubs walk through the door. "Hm, yes." He levitated a clipboard at the foot of Scootaloo's cot while adjusting a pair of spectacles on the bridge of his nose. "Miss Scootaloo?" The unicorn sounded anxious. He replaced the clipboard and hesitated.

"You're alive," he began. There was the shadow of a laugh in his eyes. "But, there's a few things you need to know."

* * *

She winced as the mechanism was cinched and ratcheted onto the stub that had once been her leg. There was a nuanced beauty in the simplicity of the steel-plated machine, in the way it was shaped, in the way it whirred. It had been an arduous process to design it, to machine the smaller cogs, and to put it all together.

"That should do'er," said Apple Bloom, dropping the small wrench from her mouth. She smiled at her friend.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Daredevil Cyborg a go?" joked Scootaloo.

"C-M-C-D-C is a go," acknowledged Apple Bloom with a titter. Sweetie and Apple Bloom watched as their friend took a tentative step with the aid of her new leg, balancing with a few flaps of her wings.

The pegasus, more sure of herself now, leapt and glided across the field before barreling into the other two. The three shared a giggle and a hug.


	6. Alighted

In the cold, the dark, the waning sunlight dripping over our horizon, it moves. With the weather, the dryness, the heat that never ceases, it breathes. Under the glow of the moon and the candle of the sun, it hunts. To the beating of fear-laced hearts it draws near.

Magic—

Life of fire and death of winter.

Magic—

Smile of joy, shriek of sadness.

Magic—

The beginning or the end?

Relentless actuality coursed across her body. Worlds, lives, truths—possibility—flooded through her vision. Peering into the abyss, lyres' strumming, green and callous light, mires of history, brambles of hatred clashing with the love; all tongues of flame clawing at her mind.

That long ago, the drumming, drumming.

"Twi—" A voice, a face, the graying sky. Veins of frost closed the gap. The silence was unmarred.

The burning, the pain, the sorrow, the… hate?

It was almost mystical. A feeling unlike any other. A new magic, one that burned her spirit, cemented her fear in frames of jealousy and anger. It alighted her soul with indignation.

Righteous fury interminable.

The water all around, the frost, the darkness chewing at the corners of her mind, power grew, spread, and fed on a spring of emotion. Boiling water, break through the barrier, use the power, destroy them forever.

The blaze of glory—

"—ight…" She recognized the voice.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Head pounding, soaked to the bone in icy water, smoky breath threading away in the chill breezes—battlefield scarred by an unknown force.

"It's okay. You—" Dash stopped for a second. "You were pretty awesome, actually."

But the Windigos were still out there; or was that even what they were? The cold chill, the anger, the power. Beneath the calm, the tranquility, the chivalry, something horrid lay. Beneath the golden hearts, the kindness, the peace, something… drumming, drumming, drumming…

Something lay beneath the surface.

And she saw it all.


End file.
